Thinking Maps

Critical thinking skills are the next level that all teachers strive to take their students to, the quintessential peaks that assessments are designed to measure.
However, before reaching the summit, there are multiple moments of formative learning and conceptual bridges to build to lead students along the path of higher achievement.
Thinking maps provide multiple clear, visual open canvases upon which students can explore and grow their critical thinking skills of comparison, conceptualization, pattern identification and cross-curricular connections.
The visual formats can be applied to a variety of disciplines and grade levels, allowing for consistency among learning experiences horizontally from class to class, and vertically from one grade level to the next.
The intention of thinking maps is to offer students a familiar format for organizing and analyzing their complex thoughts in response to learning.  In addition, using these maps provides a common forum for reference and discussion about learning objectives amongst teachers.
Please reference the source link "Thinking Maps" connected at the right.  It is an excellent site, giving you access to the educational philosophy and intention behind these maps, access to the various types of maps, applicative ideas for many areas of instruction, and even concrete alignment connections to the common core standards!
The second resource at the right, "Thinking Maps as a Transformational Language for Learning," includes an article written by David Hyerle, Ed.D., where he explains this educational concept he founded and how these maps can lead to student successes in various classrooms.  This site also links you to examples for how these maps could be practically used in the high school classroom.